It is with the deepest sadness that I write this post. This post is not about photography, although I am attaching some photographs.
Today, 16 December, 2014, the Pakistani Taliban militants attacked a school in Peshawar, killing 141 people. 132 of them were children. I grieve, along with most of the world, for the loss of these innocent, precious lives. I try to imagine the horror and terror of what they saw in their last moments and for those who lived, what trauma will live with them for the rest of their lives.
Two years and two days ago, 14 December, 2012, the young, little children at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut, were gunned down. Massacred. And the ones who lived will forever remember the looks on the faces of their friends murdered right beside them.
This is routine in Syria. And, other parts of the world, but I mention Syria because it has become commonplace for terrorists to brutally and in torturous ways massacre children. To make their parents watch as they are executed. Those last minutes of life … there are just no words to describe the horror of it.
Please don’t forget. Please don’t forget these children. We have to make this stop. Please keep these innocent children and their families in your heart and in your prayers.
Photographer Unknown
Photographer Unknown
Photo: Henri Cartier-Bresson / Liverpool
Photographer Unknown
Photographer Unknown
Photo: Gordon Parks / Black Muslim School Children in Chicago
Photo: Frances Benjamin Johnston / 1899, School Children and Teacher, Washington DC
Photo: Henri Cartier-Bresson
Photo: Marc Riboud
Photo: Sebastião Salgado
In selecting these photographs, I looked for school children in classrooms, children in a beautifully simple moment, and children with lambs. In Bouguereau’s painting, “L’Innocence”, both the young child and lamb are symbols of innocence. Though this is not a photograph, here is the painting:
beautiful post
Thank you, Zak!